Chapter 80: Return

“I cannot believe I let you talk me into this,” Donica muttered.

Gravel rattled, dust and snow billowed, as she pulled her Yukon up to the familiar slumping fence of the construction site.

“It’s fine,” Lena said. “You got me and Bernie backing you up this time. And Cam can do whatever it is he does, too.”

“Mostly scream when he backs into doors, from what I recall,” Donica said.

Lena lay her head against my shoulder. “Sounds about right.”

From the front seat, Erin chuckled.

The sun hung low in the sky. The skyscrapers to the north were shifting from office lights to apartment ones. Everybody had finished work or school. Or, in my and Lena’s cases, tried to work but mostly refreshed YouTube to see how many views our new video was picking up. Almost fifty thousand already.

We just had to make it through the night and we’d probably see it hit a hundred.

Donica’s wasn’t the only vehicle present. Miguel’s Prius had driven in its wake. I had no idea how he’d navigated the snow before we met up in the parking lot of my and Lena’s apartment.

I was even less sure about Zhizhi’s car, a tiny, battered Dodge Neon with the round headlights from that ancient “Hi” commercial they used when they first launched the model. The car had to be at least as old as Erin.

Zhizhi waved to us as we emerged. “So. This is the spooky place?”

I followed her gaze in the direction I’d been trying not to look.

To the naked eye, it remained a construction site. Even though it was a building that never finished being born, it looked more like the corpse of one. Skeletal girders clawing skyward, pressed-board flesh with the façade sloughed off.

What would I see if I raised my phone and looked through Third Eye? I wasn’t ready to face the answer yet.

You might think, isn’t this the last place we should’ve gone?

You might be right.

From a mundane perspective, we had to trespass to look around. We were about to have someone film us do it, and our only defense was that she’d promised to blur our faces if it seemed like that was the best way to protect us. If Zhizhi went back on her word, how screwed would we be?

From our perspective?

I couldn’t see if the elevator doors were open from out here. If I went inside, I’d find myself staring straight at them. There was nowhere I wanted to avoid more.

But consider our alternatives:

After Lena collected Bernie and her Fire, her Realm seemed to have vanished. No burning hallways, no piles of knickknacks. Not even ash remained.

Erin told us the same was true of her Realm, and in any case, that was at her dad’s house and he wouldn’t welcome us arriving to film what we found. I got the impression she wasn’t eager to go back herself.

The tunnel would’ve been better. We’d still have had to trespass to get past that locked gate, but from a Third Eye perspective? Less disturbing, more straightforward, and way closer to my and Lena’s apartment.

The temperature had topped forty degrees Fahrenheit this afternoon, though, and the forecast had been for it to get close to fifty. Snowmelt would push very real water down that drainage ditch, an unambiguous danger that could turn deadly if it became a flash flood.

So. The construction site.

We knew it had depths Donica and I had yet to plumb. We knew it was full of weirdness, some visible without Third Eye. We knew it was full of Materials, and it seemed so portentous, we thought it should have a Reactant or Refinement somewhere deeper inside as well. Or, better yet, a clue to Third Eye’s deeper mysteries.

All of those were logical reasons to go back, reasons it would be perfect for the first chapter of our documentary.

Deep down, I knew they weren’t the reason I had proposed a return trip.

Was I scared? Shitless.

Was I powerless?

I wanted to believe the answer was no. This was where I could find out.

I took a deep breath. “Are we ready to do this?”

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“Absolutely not,” Donica said.

“You’ve certainly played it up as something intimidating,” Zhizhi said. “By the way. In case this has all turned out to be an elaborate way to lure me out to an isolated place because your little cult really is murderous? You should know, I let a couple friends know where I’d be tonight, and who with. You better get me out alive.”

“We will not let harm come to a single hair on your head.” Miguel stopped beside Lena and I and took out a cigarette. “Incidentally, speaking as the other person here who has no ability to influence the world through Third Eye? I would also very much like to be gotten out alive.”

Zhizhi laughed.

I didn’t. “About that.”

Everyone turned to me. The abrupt attention made me hesitate. Lena gave my arm a gentle punch.

I cleared my throat. “We’ve only got four hardhats.”

Miguel lit his cigarette. “I don’t think you’re saying we should get more.”

“No.” I glanced at Lena. She nodded up at me. “Only four of us are going in.”

“Which four?” he asked.

“Me, Lena, Donica, and Zhizhi. Assuming all of us are still willing to.”

Zhizhi picked a handheld camera up off the hood of her Neon. “I didn’t come over here because I love practicing snow driving.”

Lena hugged my arm. “You know I’m in. I need to teach this place a lesson for spooking you.”

Which just left Donica. We’d hashed this out in Discord, which was why Miguel was out of the loop, and in that format, she’d seemed confident about the return trip. She and I knew the ground. Clues in her neighborhood had led us here. She still needed her first Reactant.

Now, with the construction site looming over her, she bit her lip. “I...”

“I should go instead,” Erin said. “There will be safer places for you to find your first Reactant, surely.”

Donica stiffened. “I don’t need you to protect me, Erin.”

“You’ve done plenty to protect me. Isn’t this my chance to return the favor?” Erin smiled. “You don’t have any Reactants. I have three. While I’m not sure how powerful Bernie will turn out to be if Lena calls on him, from what we know, there’s a good chance I’m the most powerful player here.”

“No,” Donica said.

“How can you –?”

“It’s not the Third Eye danger she’s worried about,” I said.

Erin looked back and forth between us.

Donica narrowed her eyes at me. I don’t think she wanted to admit the way she’d intended to protect Erin. Erin was the one she addressed, though. “This is technically trespassing. I don’t believe we’ll get in any trouble, and if we do, I believe I can get us off. But I’m not willing to risk your future on that belief.”

“It’s fine for you, though?” Erin asked.

“I’m sorry,” Donica said. “I’m playing the odds. I don’t want you to.”

“Which one of us has done better by playing the odds, Donica?” Erin asked.

Donica flinched. I remembered what she’d said about losing every fantasy sports league at her office. How many of those had Erin, stathead extraordinaire, participated in?

How many had she won?

Right now, she swept her gaze over us. “Am I wrong?”

“Don’t look here,” Zhizhi said. “It’s all news to me.”

Miguel puffed on his cigarette. Lena averted her eyes.

I met Erin’s gaze.

She stretched her neck and stood up straight. Like that, I thought she was maybe a little taller than me. Certainly tall enough to look down her nose at me.

Maybe if I’d been looking at her through Third Eye, I’d have caved. I wasn’t as inured to her Custom Personification as I was Lena’s. It’s hard to say no to the Empress of Heaven, you know?

I wasn’t looking through Third Eye. “Yes.”

She blinked. “Oh.” Blinked again. “Why?”

“Last time, Donica and I lost time somewhere when we were in there. I want you to run comms for us while we’re inside. Then, if we have some kind of discontinuity, you’ll know about it right away. You know more than anybody about Third Eye –” Anybody we could get access to. God, I wanted to find Albie again. “– and you’re crazy good at pattern recognition. If you spot something through our cameras that we haven’t, I trust you most to warn us.”

“And I suppose the same applies to me?” Miguel asked.

“You got it, buddy,” Lena said. “Although in your case it kinda is a Third Eye thing, too.”

He spread his hand, waiting for an explanation.

“We’re worried about whether Third Eye phenomena can put Zhizhi in danger as a non-player,” I said.

She gave her handheld camera a shake. “I am also worried about that. There’s no way I’m missing this, though.”

I nodded to her. To Miguel, I said, “You’re a player, or rather, an ex-player. There’s no ambiguity about how much Third Eye shit can hurt you, and a lot about whether you can do anything about it.”

“There is no ambiguity about how much the condition of the roads can hurt me, either,” he said. “Yet you still wished to invite me over just to tell me I can’t go inside?”

I scratched the back of my neck. “All right. Maybe we should’ve been more upfront about this.”

The tip of his cigarette glowed brighter as he puffed.

“You’re a security expert,” I said. “You’re also crazy good at pattern recognition. I’ll feel a hell of a lot better knowing you’re watching our backs, too.”

He waved for me to continue.

I glanced at Erin. There was one other thing I hadn’t told her. “And... you’re a smooth enough talker that if somebody gets a wild hair and asks what all these cars are doing at this abandoned construction site, you can convince them we’re supposed to be here.”

“I hate it when you turn out to be right.” Miguel sighed. “It’s happened so rarely, I’ve never been able to develop a tolerance for it.”

I gave him the finger; he gave me a tip of his cigarette.

“In that case,” Erin said, “let’s begin.”

Her words hung like the steam from her breath, fading in the night air I couldn’t feel the cold of. At her back, the construction site brooded, a jagged outline against the skyline and the fading sun.

I looked at the team. Donica tried not to shudder. Failed. Zhizhi shifted on her feet.

Lena forced a grin.

I made myself match it. “Let’s.”